“One of the most complex and thoroughgoing works ever to catalogue the esoteric wisdom of antiquity.” New Dawn
The Story Behind the Secret Teachings of All Ages By Jessica Hundley
Opposite: M. K. Serailian The Seven Spinal Chakras from An Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Operative Occultism, published in 1929 by Manly P. Hall, 1926.
Manly P. Hall aboard the round-the-world liner SS Franconia, 1920s. Photographer unknown.
In 1923, 22-year-old Los Angeles-based philosopher Manly P. Hall set out by ship to explore sacred sites around the globe. He would stand at the feet of the Sphinx, climb the Great Wall, and sit at the feet of Sufi holy men. Returning home, Hall set out to write his magnum opus, a massive compendium of philosophy and myth, entitled The Secret Teachings of All Ages. As he explained in a letter his “It is a volume to be used in interpreting the philosophic, scientific, and religious allegories of the ancient and modern worlds. This book has a definite message for those in every walk of life who are interested in the deeper problems of their divine origin and destiny.” Embracing an expansive range of occult teachings, from Astrology and to the building of the pyramids, from Tarot to Pythagorean philosophies—Secret Teachings of All Ages, is one young man’s attempt to unveil the arcane myths and furtive mysteries of thousands of years of human civilization. First published in a limited edition of only 500 in 1928, the original Secret Teachings was a wonder to behold, a massive tome encompassing an array of esoteric topics and featuring vividly cinematic artwork. To bring his densely researched chapters to vivid life, Hall relied on of two talented artists of the era, each taking their own unique approach to occult subject matter. The first was the California-based, Armenian-born Mihran Kevork Serailian, whose contributions were inspired by and in reference to much of the source material Hall had brought back from his world travels. Among Hall’s treasures were a number of traditional Tantric painting from Rajasthan, India—abstracted spiritual art that Hall and Serailian translated into vibrant works of mystical realism. For the bulk of the artwork created for Secret Teachings, however, Hall enlisted the prodigious talents of his close friend and fellow seeker, the artist J. Augustus Knapp. A Freemason and Scottish Rite member, Knapp had arrived in Los Angeles in 1923, most likely at the encouragement of Hall, whom he had met four years prior. Knapp found work immediately in the film industry, putting his creative skills to use painting movie posters for a prominent publicity company. The two would form a fertile collaboration with Secret Teachings, Hall’s fevered essays elevated by Knapp into vibrant visual narratives.
“Unique among his contemporaries, Hall would utilize his charismatic persona as a conduit, remaining always an enthusiast, never a guru.” Knapp would create 54 epic watercolor paintings for the book, (48 were included) depicting figures, landscapes, and symbols inspired by ancient myth and religious and philosophical concepts. The result of Hall and Knapp’s collective efforts is perhaps one of the most comprehensive encyclopedic volumes on esoterica—ever—an overview of humankind’s exploration into the unknown, illustrated with all lush, hyper-realism of a fantasy film or a graphic novel. Bound in goatskin and encased in polished wood, the original Subscriber’s edition of Secret Teachings weighed over 15 pounds and was priced at $100, a substantial sum in 1928. It was an instant sensation. The book would make the then 27-year old Hall world famous. A brilliant, impassioned speaker, he would go on lecture on philosophy across the nation and at the Philosophical 65
Research Society, the campus he would build in Los Angeles in 1935. Built by architect Robert Stacy-Judd to resemble a Mayan Temple, the space included an ornate library housing Hall’s treasure trove of rare books and art. Unique among his contemporaries, Hall would utilize his charismatic persona as a conduit, remaining always an enthusiast, never a guru. His enduring conviction was that philosophy provided the true path to redemption. Enlightenment, for Hall, arrived only with the understanding of one’s self. He would go so far as to dedicate The Secret Teaching of All Ages to “the Rational Soul of the World”. In his introduction to Secret Teachings, he provides a strident manifesto on the importance of philosophy in the modern world and to the modern mind. “Plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by Divinity to man…In this age the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other qualifying term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms more or less antagonistic, which have become so concerned with the effort to disprove each other’s fallacies that the more sublime issues of divine order and human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect. The ideal function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought.”
Portrait of Manly P. Hall at The Philosophical Research Society, 1985. Photographer unknown.
Opposite: Robert Stacy-Judd Architectural sketch of the Philosophical Research Society, 1934.
66
TASCHEN MAGAZINE
Perhaps one of the most comprehensive encyclopedic volumes ever created, Hall’s masterpiece is now presented by TASCHEN in a new and expansive box set. Featuring never-before seen-imagery, fine art prints, and an informative companion guide, this expanded edition of The Secret Teachings of All Ages, brings Hall’s original vision back to vivid life. An astounding overview of humankind’s exploration into the unknown, Hall’s work offers a potent reminder of his own enduring belief; that knowledge and philosophy “will do nothing less than save the world.” An Excerpt from The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Palmer Hall In this commercial age, science is concerned solely with the classification of physical knowledge and investigation of the temporal and illusionary parts of Nature. Its so-called practical discoveries bind one but more tightly with the bonds of physical limitation, Religion, too, has become materialistic: the beauty and dignity of faith is measured by huge piles of masonry, by tracts of real estate, or by the balance sheet. Philosophy which connects heaven and earth like a mighty ladder, up the rungs of which the illumined of all ages have climbed into the living presence of Reality, even philosophy has become a prosaic and heterogeneous mass of conflicting notions. Its beauty, its dignity, its transcendency are no more. Like other branches of human thought, it has been made materialistic, “practical” and its activities so directionalized that they may also contribute their part to the erection of this modern world of stone and steel. The power to think true is the savior of humanity. The great philosophic institutions of the past must rise again, for these alone can tend the veil which divides the world of causes from that of effects. Only the Mysteries, those sacred Colleges of Wisdom, can reveal to struggling humanity, that greater and more glorious universe which is the true home of the spiritual being. Modern philosophy has failed in that it has come to regard thinking as simply an intellectual process. Materialistic thought is as hopeless a code of life as commercialism itself. Briefly stated, the true purpose of ancient philosophy was to discover a method whereby development of the rational nature could be accelerated instead of awaiting the slower processes of Nature, This supreme source of power, this attainment of knowledge, this unfolding of the god within, is concealed under the epigrammatic statement of the philosophic life. This was the key to the Great Work, the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone, for it meant that alchemical transmutation had been accomplished. One’s physical, emotional, and mental natures provide environments of reciprocal benefit or detriment to each other. Hence right action, right feeling, and right thinking are prerequisites of right knowing, and the attainment of philosophic power is possible only to such as have harmonized their thinking, with their living. Philosophic power is the natural outgrowth of the philosophic life. Just as an intense physical existence emphasizes the importance of physical things, or just as the monastic metaphysical asceticism establishes the desirability of the ecstatic state, so complete philosophic absorption ushers the consciousness of the thinker into the most elevated and noble of all spheres—the pure philosophic, or rational, world. The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life result from the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in part the dignity of life cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activities of this age. It has been said that no individual can succeed until they has developed their philosophy
of life. Neither can a race or nation attain true greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy and has dedicated its existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. War, the irrefutable evidence of irrationality, still smolders in the hearts of men; it cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifarious inventions and destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal strife through future ages. But upon the mind of one there is dawning a great fear, the fear that eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclysmic struggle.
“The power to think true is the savior of humanity.” Then must be reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out of the ruins of the civilization which died when its idealism died, some primitive people yet in the womb of destiny must build a new world. Foreseeing the needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired that into the structure of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all that has gone before. It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall be the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures of humanity must
be preserved. That which is superficial may be allowed to perish; that which is fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost. Through the eternities of existence, one is gradually increasing in both wisdom and understanding; our ever-expanding consciousness is including more of the external within the area of itself. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must, lead the soul into the perfect light of unity. Philosophy would lead us into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the world of philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up within each human soul are given opportunity for expression. Here we are taught the wonders of the blades of grass; each stick and stone is endowed with speech and tells the secret of its being. All life, bathed in the radiance of understanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality. In this era of “practical” things we scoff at goodness. We have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight of its Providential Generator. Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physical existence. We continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still dream of a nobler world, a fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the heart and mind, the gates which lead from mortality to immortality are still ajar. Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the regenerators of humanity. The path still winds upward to accomplishment. The soul has not been 67
Research Society, the campus he would build in Los Angeles in 1935. Built by architect Robert Stacy-Judd to resemble a Mayan Temple, the space included an ornate library housing Hall’s treasure trove of rare books and art. Unique among his contemporaries, Hall would utilize his charismatic persona as a conduit, remaining always an enthusiast, never a guru. His enduring conviction was that philosophy provided the true path to redemption. Enlightenment, for Hall, arrived only with the understanding of one’s self. He would go so far as to dedicate The Secret Teaching of All Ages to “the Rational Soul of the World”. In his introduction to Secret Teachings, he provides a strident manifesto on the importance of philosophy in the modern world and to the modern mind. “Plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by Divinity to man…In this age the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other qualifying term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms more or less antagonistic, which have become so concerned with the effort to disprove each other’s fallacies that the more sublime issues of divine order and human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect. The ideal function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought.”
Portrait of Manly P. Hall at The Philosophical Research Society, 1985. Photographer unknown.
Opposite: Robert Stacy-Judd Architectural sketch of the Philosophical Research Society, 1934.
66
TASCHEN MAGAZINE
Perhaps one of the most comprehensive encyclopedic volumes ever created, Hall’s masterpiece is now presented by TASCHEN in a new and expansive box set. Featuring never-before seen-imagery, fine art prints, and an informative companion guide, this expanded edition of The Secret Teachings of All Ages, brings Hall’s original vision back to vivid life. An astounding overview of humankind’s exploration into the unknown, Hall’s work offers a potent reminder of his own enduring belief; that knowledge and philosophy “will do nothing less than save the world.” An Excerpt from The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Palmer Hall In this commercial age, science is concerned solely with the classification of physical knowledge and investigation of the temporal and illusionary parts of Nature. Its so-called practical discoveries bind one but more tightly with the bonds of physical limitation, Religion, too, has become materialistic: the beauty and dignity of faith is measured by huge piles of masonry, by tracts of real estate, or by the balance sheet. Philosophy which connects heaven and earth like a mighty ladder, up the rungs of which the illumined of all ages have climbed into the living presence of Reality, even philosophy has become a prosaic and heterogeneous mass of conflicting notions. Its beauty, its dignity, its transcendency are no more. Like other branches of human thought, it has been made materialistic, “practical” and its activities so directionalized that they may also contribute their part to the erection of this modern world of stone and steel. The power to think true is the savior of humanity. The great philosophic institutions of the past must rise again, for these alone can tend the veil which divides the world of causes from that of effects. Only the Mysteries, those sacred Colleges of Wisdom, can reveal to struggling humanity, that greater and more glorious universe which is the true home of the spiritual being. Modern philosophy has failed in that it has come to regard thinking as simply an intellectual process. Materialistic thought is as hopeless a code of life as commercialism itself. Briefly stated, the true purpose of ancient philosophy was to discover a method whereby development of the rational nature could be accelerated instead of awaiting the slower processes of Nature, This supreme source of power, this attainment of knowledge, this unfolding of the god within, is concealed under the epigrammatic statement of the philosophic life. This was the key to the Great Work, the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone, for it meant that alchemical transmutation had been accomplished. One’s physical, emotional, and mental natures provide environments of reciprocal benefit or detriment to each other. Hence right action, right feeling, and right thinking are prerequisites of right knowing, and the attainment of philosophic power is possible only to such as have harmonized their thinking, with their living. Philosophic power is the natural outgrowth of the philosophic life. Just as an intense physical existence emphasizes the importance of physical things, or just as the monastic metaphysical asceticism establishes the desirability of the ecstatic state, so complete philosophic absorption ushers the consciousness of the thinker into the most elevated and noble of all spheres—the pure philosophic, or rational, world. The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life result from the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in part the dignity of life cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activities of this age. It has been said that no individual can succeed until they has developed their philosophy
of life. Neither can a race or nation attain true greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy and has dedicated its existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. War, the irrefutable evidence of irrationality, still smolders in the hearts of men; it cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifarious inventions and destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal strife through future ages. But upon the mind of one there is dawning a great fear, the fear that eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclysmic struggle.
“The power to think true is the savior of humanity.” Then must be reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out of the ruins of the civilization which died when its idealism died, some primitive people yet in the womb of destiny must build a new world. Foreseeing the needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired that into the structure of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all that has gone before. It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall be the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures of humanity must
be preserved. That which is superficial may be allowed to perish; that which is fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost. Through the eternities of existence, one is gradually increasing in both wisdom and understanding; our ever-expanding consciousness is including more of the external within the area of itself. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must, lead the soul into the perfect light of unity. Philosophy would lead us into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the world of philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up within each human soul are given opportunity for expression. Here we are taught the wonders of the blades of grass; each stick and stone is endowed with speech and tells the secret of its being. All life, bathed in the radiance of understanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality. In this era of “practical” things we scoff at goodness. We have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight of its Providential Generator. Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physical existence. We continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still dream of a nobler world, a fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the heart and mind, the gates which lead from mortality to immortality are still ajar. Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the regenerators of humanity. The path still winds upward to accomplishment. The soul has not been 67
deprived of its wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh. Philosophy is ever that magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its bondage to habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its wings and soar to the very source of itself. The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all welcome to the House of Light. The great institution of materiality has failed. The false civilization built by one has turned, and like the monster of Frankenstein, is destroying its creator. Religion wanders aimlessly in the maze of theological speculation. Science batters itself impotently against the barriers of the unknown.
Only transcendental philosophy knows the path. Only the illumined reason can carry the understanding part of one upward to the light. Only philosophy can teach one to be born well, to live well, to die well, and in perfect measure be born again. Into this band of the elect, those who have chosen the life of knowledge, of virtue, and of utility, the philosophers of the ages invite YOU.
Jessica Hundley is an author, filmmaker, and journalist. She has written for Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, and is also the author and editor of TASCHEN’s Library of Esoterica series.
“A lavish tome worthy of the wisdom passed down by many great teachers throughout history.” Creative Review
68
TASCHEN MAGAZINE
Opposite: M. K. Serailian The Opening of the Third Eye from An Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Operative Occultism, published in 1929 by Manly P. Hall, 1926.
deprived of its wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh. Philosophy is ever that magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its bondage to habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its wings and soar to the very source of itself. The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all welcome to the House of Light. The great institution of materiality has failed. The false civilization built by one has turned, and like the monster of Frankenstein, is destroying its creator. Religion wanders aimlessly in the maze of theological speculation. Science batters itself impotently against the barriers of the unknown.
Only transcendental philosophy knows the path. Only the illumined reason can carry the understanding part of one upward to the light. Only philosophy can teach one to be born well, to live well, to die well, and in perfect measure be born again. Into this band of the elect, those who have chosen the life of knowledge, of virtue, and of utility, the philosophers of the ages invite YOU.
Jessica Hundley is an author, filmmaker, and journalist. She has written for Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, and is also the author and editor of TASCHEN’s Library of Esoterica series.
“A lavish tome worthy of the wisdom passed down by many great teachers throughout history.” Creative Review
68
TASCHEN MAGAZINE
Opposite: M. K. Serailian The Opening of the Third Eye from An Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Operative Occultism, published in 1929 by Manly P. Hall, 1926.